I am submitting this comment in response to HHS’s Request for Information on Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation, and Wireless Radiation Exposure.
I am responding from the perspective of a concerned member of the public as good friends of mine are highly sensitive to EMF’s, to the point where they mainly no longer venture from their rural home; I believe it’s a mistake to blithely support something which impacts all living forms on the planet. At the least, it should be an individual’s choice as to whether or not one is subjected to the potential health risks from wireless radiation.
In my case, the state of Michigan allows consumers to opt out from smart meters but unfortunately my local REA (Ontonagon REA) has a loophole around this law and Ontonagon REA forced me (a senior citizen and longtime customer in good standing) off-grid at my rural summer homestead because I refuse to use their smart meter (I know of others in the area who are also being pushed to accept REA’s smart meters). It’s been a hardship for me to be off-grid, and no one I’ve spoken with believes that it’s acceptable for an American company to allow its own interests to override individual liberties. HHS can play a role in helping to allow consumers this important right to choose whether or not to have a smart meter at their home and in so doing, protect individuals who wish to reduce wireless radiation exposure and keep their homes safe and comfortable places in which to live.
I support HHS taking an active role in examining the potential health and environmental effects of wireless radiation. Questions about human health should be addressed by federal agencies with appropriate expertise in medicine, biology, epidemiology, and public health, and the experiences of individuals and families who report being affected should be considered alongside the scientific evidence.
I urge HHS to carefully evaluate these experiences and the scientific evidence, identify gaps in current research, give particular attention to children and other potentially vulnerable populations, and establish appropriate federal research priorities regarding wireless radiation and public health.
Thank you for providing individuals and families with an opportunity to be heard.
My mother was severely impacted traveling on a route with cell towers.
She could not walk without assistance and impaired.
Over time it was obvious it was the cell tower pulsed microwave radiation impacting her.
She could not longer freely travel.
First, thank you for this opportunity to submit critical information. I have been invisible as I've tried to share what was happening to me with others and have been ignored. I am a retired Assistant Superintendent of Schools. I have devoted over 30 years to public education. I believe my contribution was phenomenal!
Now I find myself targeted with chemtrails and poisonous toxins, as well as directed energy weapons. I'm a social media moderator I would love the opportunity to sit down with you with a group of my followers. I would choose the ones that have been diagnosed with Havana syndrome and are experiencing some of the major symptoms.
As a result, I have been diagnosed with Havana Syndrome which is now called DEBE. I have also been scanned by Jesse Beltran and he discovered several anomalous frequencies around my body. For many others that fall in that category further testing has led to implants.
As a moderator in the community, I would love the opportunity to sit down with you and some of my followers who have also been diagnosed with a van a syndrome and scanned as well.
I've been around computers and electronics since 1977, starting with mainframe computers and the old-fashioned tube displays. That was my job until 2003 when I retired. I'm always somebody who wants to try new things when they come out. At one time I had three microwaves in my kitchen, or so I could cook three different items at the same time and have a full course meal come out in 30 minutes. When I started to work from home, I always asked for the fastest modem that was possible from my work. When the iPhone came out in 2007, I bought one and used it incessantly. I made the comment to myself this may cause me problems later on, but I would deal with that then, because right now it was wonderful. In 2012, I was living in my condo in Port Hueneme, California, called Surfside IV. I was on the second of three floors at the end of the building. In March, the electric company installed seven smart electric meters in the utility room that was directly underneath my master bedroom. underneath a closet. In May, I noticed that whenever I walked back to the master bedroom, I tended to get a headache for about two weeks. My neighbor downstairs reported the same thing. I now believe this is when they were testing the smart meters. I was excited for them to be activated so that I could monitor my electrical usage by the hour. Once a month I would call asking when they were going to be fully activated. About three weeks into September, I called and was notified that they were activated at the beginning of September. Starting around the beginning of September, my sleep had gone from nine hours a day to 4 1/2 hours a day. I thought I had just a bad bout of insomnia. I had no idea that the smart meters had been turned on. I'm fairly smart, but with my lack of sleep, it took me a year to figure out what to do. I got four of the 7 smart meters replaced with manual. I replaced my wireless phones with wired, and I switched to Ethernet cords instead of wireless for my computer. This made a small improvement. The final step was to construct a Faraday cage made out of aluminum screening that I constructed around my mattress on my platform bed, with one side opening up for me to get in and out, and the mattress inside. This reduced the reading on my meter to -65 DB, which is the most it would go to. At times, the cage would get tears in it and I found that if the reading went over -60 DB my sleep would deteriorate to six hours. This happened several times, so it was a multiple experiment that was collaborated. I found that if I was in an area that had -35 dB or greater, that within a half an hour I would feel very nervous and my sleep would be affected that night. I found that being in meeting rooms with other people that had cell phones, even though there was Wi-Fi in the building, that if I had everybody turn their cell phones off that the radiation was reduced by 90% most times. In other words, having cell phones on, in close proximity to me in a group, was much stronger than the Wi-Fi in the building. In a movie theater, I would have to go to a far corner, to be away from being in the middle of the group of people. In 2018 and in 2019, I was in the hospital. I had to be given drugs to help me get any sleep at all. In 2024 I was in the hospital for over three weeks and with opiates in me, I still had trouble sleeping more than two hours a night. I finally relented and let them give me Ambien, which allowed me to sleep six hours. I ordered an EMF blocking single pup tent that is designed to be used on motel beds. We installed that on my hospital bed and I was able to sleep six hours with no Ambien. In 2026, I was in the hospital again and used the same pup tent in both the emergency room and in the hospital, to good effect. I now find that I need to be in an area with no bars on my cell phone and no Wi-Fi hotspot around me to be able to sleep good.
Comment on:
Request for Information on
Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs),
Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation, and
Wireless Radiation Exposure (HHS–OASH–2026–0397)
Intro:
The purpose of this comment is to both share my experiences and suggest new RF/EMF research priorities.
Personal experiences:
I have experienced several health effects that may be tied to mobile phone usage. While using a 4g phone to connect to the Internet I have experienced the following: numbness in the fingers of each hand, digestive disturbances after holding the phone near my abdominal area for extended periods of time, a sensation of warm-tingling in my thigh and groin area when the phone was set on automatic update and carried in my front pocket, and irritability at times following using the device. I have also noticed irritability in others such as family members or coworkers after device use.
I believe the effects I have experienced personally or noticed in others have a biological basis and aren't just psychosomatic.
Future research:
I have an advanced biology degree and have been interested in following the RF/EMF debate for years.
I am aware that some research suggests no RF/EMF health effects. However, other research has concluded there are enough measurable health effects to warrant additional studies (1,2,3).
I would like to suggest a research area that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may not have considered. I believe HHS funding of the research area below would greatly advance our understanding of RF/EMF health effects.
Research Priority 1:
Effects of RF/EMF on the Human Microbiome.
Background:
The human Microbiome is a mixture of body inhabiting microorganisms. These microorganisms outnumber human cells by a factor of 10 and a factor of 150 when comparing the number of bacterial genes to human genes (4). The Microbiome has and still is being researched to understand its influence on disease states, mental health, intelligence, and other behaviors (5,6,7). Research has shown RF/EMF fields can also exert influence on bacterial growth characteristics, gene expression and gut metabolite formation (8,9). Thus, RF/EMF interactions with the human Microbiome may influence human health, intelligence, mental illness, and other behaviors.
Areas for study:
It would be helpful to:
I. Systematically research and catalog changes in gene expression when the human Microbiome is exposed to RF/EMF fields.
(Especially gene expression of gut microbes.)
Ii. Systematically research and catalog any epigenetic changes that occur when the human Microbiome is exposed to RF/EMF fields.
(Studying the epigenetic changes may also allow a way to determine past exposures to RF/EMF fields.)
Iii. Systematically research and catalog metabolite alterations when the human Microbiome is exposed to RF/EMF fields.
(Especially any metabolites that would influence mental or physical health.)
References:
1 Non-ionizing Radiation, Part 2: Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields. -
IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. Volume 102. https://publications.iarc.who.int/Book-And-Report-Series/Iarc-Monographs-On-The-Identification-Of-Carcinogenic-Hazards-To-Humans/Non-ionizing-Radiation-Part-2-Radiofrequency-Electromagnetic-Fields-2013
2. More from Lai-Singh on ELF EMFs and DNA Breaks.
https://microwavenews.com/news-center/more-lai-singh-elf-emfs-and-dna-breaks
3. ACS Responds to New Study Linking Cell Phone Radiation to Cancer.
https://pressroom.cancer.org/NTP2016
4. Taxonomy in the age of genomics.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/human-microbiome
5. Gut Bacteria Might Guide The Workings Of Our Minds.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/11/18/244526773/gut-bacteria-might-guide-the-workings-of-our-minds
6 The secret to human intelligence? It might be in our gut.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260105165806.htm
7. The gut–brain connection: microbes’ influence on mental health and psychological disorders.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiomes/articles/10.3389/frmbi.2025.1701608/full
8. The response of human bacteria to static magnetic field and radiofrequency electromagnetic field.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12275-017-7208-7
9. Effects of radiofrequency field from 5G communication on fecal microbiome and metabolome profiles in mice.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-53842-2.pdf
Comments of an Individual Commenter
Docket No. HHS-OASH-2026-0397, Request for Information on Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Field Exposure and Health
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this Request for Information. I am grateful that the Department has opened this question to public comment, and I submit the attached document as my full response.
The attachment answers the RFI's questions in order. A short summary at the start sets out the main points, and a consolidated list of recommendations near the end gathers every request I make, with a pointer to the paragraph where each is explained and the federal component I believe is best placed to act.
I have provided real facts about my life experience in this submission. Please handle them with care.
I have tried to make every factual statement in the attachment checkable. Each quotation is drawn from a source listed in the appendix, which identifies each document by its citation, docket or Federal Register reference. I distinguish peer-reviewed research from government records, credentialed testimony, personal accounts and advocacy material, and I state the limits of each where I rely on it. I have not cited AI-generated summaries as evidence. Where I could not verify something, I have said so rather than fill the gap.
I am not a scientist or a clinician, and I offer no scientific judgment of my own on whether these exposures cause harm. My recommendations on care, coverage and research are proposals for the Department's consideration, not findings.
I recognize that the Department will receive many comments on this subject, and I appreciate the time of the staff who review them. I hope the attached response is useful to that work, and I would welcome the Department's continued attention to the people whose care this question affects.
Respectfully submitted,
An individual commenter
Attachment: Full response to Docket No. HHS-OASH-2026-0397 (questions answered in RFI order; consolidated recommendations; appendix of sources)